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*££ TIE LEADER. [No. 279, Saturday,
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RISTORI AND THE ENGLISH COMPANY IN PARIS...
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We are glad indeed to note the announcem...
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We need only mention the production at t...
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I^OrtfttltflL I ———
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We should do our utmost to encourage the...
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THE GOLDEN AGE. (From Tennyson's Maud." ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Toe Trench Exhibition. The Best Of The F...
factory in a technical point of view , is , as a piece of dramatic narrative on ^ ¦ * « rii . „ £ «* . ctnkinff works he has produced . The scene is SSStSS tSfeSfsAf s-. TBsra « SSSSSjas ^ fgsi = ;* £ &«? Sevesfel S ^ being " allured" by a bearded scoundrel with a woman s bonnet on displaying the back of it to the merchantman , and grinning at h £ conSdeL i -worthy fellow , naked to the waist , site close to the bulwark , showing a woman ' s straw hat and parasol just above it . Iwo other pirates act the part of peaceful gentlemen , and a third stands nlayin / the fiddle in a tubto assist in giving the crew of the
merchant-, Joan a notion 4 kat they are only approaching a yacht with pleasureseekin « passengers on board . Here is a dramatic subject treated in so dramatic a manner that we almost forget the technical faults of the picture . It is most unjustly hung in one of the worst places of the room , though it assuredly deserved one of the best Can the Visiting Committee of the French Exhibition have admitted to their councils the Hanging Committee for this year of the English Royal Academy ? M . Bluid could not have been used worse if he had exhibited during the present season in
Trafalgar-square . „ A third beautiful picture—very small , very unpretending , and very badly hung is by M . E » ooard Pibbre Fkere . It is numbered 73 , and is called " The K " ew Scrap-book . " Two little children have run away to enjoy their new scrap-book by themselves , and have taken refuge on the stairs of the house , where they sit , close to the staircase-window , poring over the first print in the scrap-book . This little domestic episode has been observed with the eye of a true poet . The children are painted with delicious simplicity and truth , and the lights and shades are dispersed over the whole picture with equal force , breadth , and fidelity . It was ' a lamentable error , to say the east of it , not to have hung this exquisite little work level
with the eye . MM . Scheffkb , Deuaroche , and Horace Veknet are incomprehensibly misrepresented by pictures which , we will venture to say , are the very worst they have ever painted . Except in the one case of M . Delaroche ' s old well-known , and somewhat over-estimated " StrafFord Going to Execution , " the three most famous painters of the French school are also the three exhibitors of the worst works in the room at Pali-Mall . How these eminent men , who have honestly won great reputations , can permit these reputations to be trifled with , as they are certainly trifled with , in the present French Exhibition , we are quite' at a loss to conceive .
MM . Fichel and Pi-assau , who made such a sensation last season by their tiny and delicate genre pictures , hardly do themselves justice this year . " Bed Time" and *' The First Whisper of Love" ( in which latter picture , however , the female figure is a direct plagiarism , from Wilkie ' s " Meg , " in " Duncan Gray , " } are perhaps the best works by these two artists . M . FichkXi ' s " Luncheon , " which has been purchased . by the Queen , has not struck us particularly . It looks like a Frenchified imitation of Tehb ^ bg . M . Charles RTegke has two little pictures ( Nos . 165 and 156 ) which the visitor to the Exhibition will do well to look at ; and M . Lambinet has a
nice sunny landscape , called " The Bathers , " which is very pleasant in colour , but rather mannered in execution . Other works of merit we must leave our readers to discover for themselves . The French Exhibition , they will find , has the great merit of not bewildering the eye by more pictures than can be comfortably seen at one visit-
*££ Tie Leader. [No. 279, Saturday,
* ££ TIE LEADER . [ No . 279 , Saturday ,
Ristori And The English Company In Paris...
RISTORI AND THE ENGLISH COMPANY IN PARIS . ( From a Correspondent in Paris . ) . . . Some surprise has been excited among the friends of Madame Ristori in Paris , that is to say more than half the public , not so much by a petulant letter of Mr . Wallack , scolding her for not giving him her autograph , but by the mariner in which that letter has been received . It surely contains no serious charge at all , and yet is calculated to produce a very unfavourable impression . The simple iruth is , that Mr . Wajllack ' s company failed , perhaps , from want of taste in the public ; whilst the company tfiat played on alternate nights , met with wonderful success , certainly not from want of taste in the public . Hence a little soreness and irritability ,
which might haVfe been mistaken for jealousy , on one side . As for Madame Ristori , her conduct seems to me to have been admirable throughout , especially in the very circumstance that Mr . Wai / lacic so unadvisedly brings against her . At the very zenith of her success she passes through the street , and beholds a variety of members of the English company , supernumaries possibly , in a state of apparent distress . Not being accustomed to the eccentric manners of our rough islanders , on the contrary , being accustomed in her own bright country to see £ ven the candle-snuffer dressed like a gentleman off the boards , she may have mistaken for signs of destitution a certain picturesque disregard of conventionalities in which our estimable brigands one , two , and three , villagers , murderers , couriers , and so on , sometimes indulge . This is quite beside the question . The interesting fact is that , she was moved with pity ; but instead of proceeding in the theatrical manner ascribed to her , merely uttered a few words of womanly
sympathy to the first friends she met , and shortly afterwards offered to play for the benefit of the English company . In attacking Madame Ristori for not choosing to answer his letter , Mr . Waixack ought not to have forgotten to mention this—circumstance , especially as although the offer was at first refused , it was subsequently accepted ; and Francesco da Itimini was actually performed for the benefit of the very persons whom she is now represented as having insulted . The report published in the Daily News of throe hundred francs emptied into the laps of the English company , has been contradicted " by authority " , " and quite sufficiently in various English and foreign journals ; and Mr . Wallack has himself had an opportunity of saying u it m not true , " and that Madame Uistori told him it was not true . What more can he want ? The public will take hi « word . Xt does not require any corroboration . It is necessary , however , to add that the contradiction should not have been accompanied by such words as " little base theatrical
preliminary puff , " for they evidence anger , and point to circumstances whicl are not mentioned . The fact is , that Madame Ristobi , who has all tin spirit and the simplicity of an Italian lady , and who thought , that to writ * to the press herself would really look like puffing , eagerly promoted th < contradiction of the rumour , and was so afraid of hurting the feelings of i body of fellow-artists , whom she sincerely believed to be poor , that sh < denied with amusing energy the fact of her being charitably inclined at all It would have much better served her purpose to spread abroad that sh ( had given a benefit to the English—as Mademoiselle Rachel has donebut she relies solely on her own genius , which must be powerful indeed ii she break through all the snares laid for her . I need not add that her reputation rises every week . As to the non-success of the English company , it is attributed by Mr
Waixack . to " gross mismanagement . " I doubt , however ^ whether nnj management would have ensured another result . The fact is , that excepi in official circles , for temporary reasons , the English are not popular here Why should we expect to be so ? We are endeavouring to make up by oui stupid Cockney enthusiasm for the silence of public opinion . We alone bellow applause in the ears of a man round all whose steps cufses hiss as h « goes . We alono take off our hats iu the Champs-EIysees and cheer uneasy Power as it hurries by . We alone provoke discussions in cafes , and coinph ment moody Frenchmen on their glorious Einperor . We alone iuanelj admit that the new Rue de Rivoli is an equivalent for liberty lost , the press gagged , everything that a nation prizes taken away . Other foreigners have the tact at any rate to conceal their shameful predilections , and affect tc imitate French sadness and humiliation . In this cose , as usual , tee show a
certain gross straightforwardness—which is one element of our strength as it is one chief reason of our unpopularity . For unpopular we are in France—there is no denying it ; and as to an English artiste or company succeeding there in these days , the thin " i * simply impossible . I have never seen any really honourable mention in Parisian criticism of actor , singer , or musician of true British origin , except in the case of the Brothers 13 in field ; and their reputation as pianists and harpists was made before the " alliance , ' with all the base complaisance it has rendered necessary , turned French kindness sour
We Are Glad Indeed To Note The Announcem...
We are glad indeed to note the announcement of the Prophete for Tuesday next , at the Royal Italian Opera , with Madame Viardot , the original , and only , Fides , and Tamjjkrlik , who , like Viakdot , has been seen and heard far too seldom this season ( and who , we have * heartl with much regret , will not return to us next year ) in the great part at John of I ^ eydcn . The season is now drawing to a close , and we hear it asked if the Trcvatore is finally shelved ? Has not Madlle . Bosio studied the part of Leonora t The Etoile du Word is a success of esteem , of curiosity , and of spectacle , but it cannot be said that the music has caught the ear of the town .
We Need Only Mention The Production At T...
We need only mention the production at the Hatmarket Theatre of a new play in five acts , by Miss Heuaup , with Mrs . Edith Hkraud in the part of the heroine . The play , Wife or no H'V / e , is in blank verse , Elisabeth an in form , " legitimate" in length . There is power of more than one kind . in the writing , but power unfortunately expended on five acts to a listless audience , in the dog-days . Hay don was beaten by General Tom Thumb , and Mr . Hbradd may without humiliation confess the superior attraction of the Spanish dancers . Miss Edith Heiuud has youth , feeling , intelligence , and a prepossessing simplicity and pure devotedness , to recommend her to all honest sympathies ; but the truth is , nothing can make an Elisabeth an play in five acts and blank verse go down in July , a . d . 1855 .
I^Ortfttltfll I ———
BartfaltflL
We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...
We should do our utmost to encourage the beautiful , for the Useful encourage * itsclfT—Goethe .
The Golden Age. (From Tennyson's Maud." ...
THE GOLDEN AGE . ( From Tennyson's Maud . " ) • * « * Why do they prate of the blessings of Peace ? we have made them a curse , Pickpockets , each hand lusting for all that is not ita own ; And lust of gain , in the spirit of Cain , is it better or worse Than the heart of the citizen hissing in war on his own hearthstone ? But these arc the days of advance , the works of the men of mind , When who but a fool would have faith in a tradesman ' s ware or his word ? Is it peace or war ? Civil war , as I think , and that of a kind The viler , as underhand , not openly bearing the aword . Sooner or later I too may passively take the print Of the goldlon nge—why not ? I have neither hope nor trust ; May inako my heart as a millstone , set my face as a flint , Cheat and bo cheated , and die : who knows ? wo are ashes and dust .
Pcaco sitting under her olive , and slurring the day a gone by , When the poor are hovoll'd and hustled together , each sex , like swine When only the ledger lives , and when only not all men lie ; Peace in her vineyard—yes I— but a company forges the wine . And the vitriol madness flushes up in tlio ruffian ' s head , Till the filthy by-lane rings to tho yell of the trampled wife , While chalk and alum and plaster are sold to tho poor for bread , And the spirit of murder works iu tho vary means of life . And Sleep must Ho down urm'd , for tho villainous contre-bits Grind on tho wakeful oar in tho hush of tho moonless nights , While another is cheating tho sick of a few last gaspn , as he sits To pestle a poison'd poison behind his crimson lights . When a Mammonito mother kills her babe for a burial fee , And Timour-Mammon grins on a pile of children's bonon , Is it peace or war ? bettor , war ! loud war by land and by sea , War with a thousand battles , and shaking a hundred thrones .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 28, 1855, page 728, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_28071855/page/20/
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